Facebook's IPO filing says they have 800 million active users, or about 11% of the entire world's population. It occurs to me that, within a decade or so, we're going to see the first IPO filing that says "basically every living person on the planet uses our service".

Facebook filed for its initial public offering Wednesday. It will be listed under the ticker FB. The company is expected to begin trading shares in the second quarter of this year. The company is trying to raise $5 billion, far less than analysts had predicted in the weeks leading to the filing.

Facebook’s Rise From Start-Up to Establishment | DanielGrossFacebook's prospectus, releasedtoday, offers readers avoyeuristic look at thecompany's operations, itsprofits and the riches it willshower on fortunate investorsand insiders. Reading betweenthe lines of the prospectus alsoreveals a case study of how, inan age of income inequalityand embedded privilege, anoutsider can very quicklybecome part of theestablishment. It shows how agood idea can attract not justcapital and customers, butpeople and other institutions.Facebook has definitivelyarrived.It starts literally at the top ofthe prospectus -- with the leadunderwriter. Facebook choseMorgan Stanley, the lastremaining white-shoe firm,which traces its lineage to J.P.Morgan.From the moment he gotstarted, Mark Zuckerberg, anoutsider without significantfamily connections, was able toattract members of theestablishment. At Harvard,some of his first funding camefrom the Winklevoss twins,who were portrayed inTheSocial Networkas aristocratic,rich-guy rowers fromGreenwich, Conn.The roster of significantinvestors also reveals thatmembers of the establishment-- in Silicon Valley, New York,Boston, Washington, Russia andHong Kong -- clamored to be apart of the company, evenwhen it was not clear it wouldbe a juggernaut.Soon after Zuckerberg movedout to Silicon Valley, he beganto attract the attention ofestablished players. Peter Thiel ,a co-founder of Paypal andringleader of a group oftechnology entrepreneurs, in2004 became the first outsiderinvestor in the company,putting in a reported $500,000for stock worth 10 percent ofthe company at the time.Next came the establishmentventure capital firms: AccelPartners , the huge globalventure capital firm, whichinvested $12.7 million in 2005and now holds an 11 percentstake; Greylock Partners , whichwas founded in 1965 and has along and distinguished historyin the field, came on board in2006, along with MeritechCapital Partners .Once Facebook gained criticalmass, heavyweightcorporations, the classic secondand third movers, cameknocking on the door. In 2006,Interpublic ( IPG ), the giganticadvertising conglomeratembought a sliver of Facebook for$5 million. (It has already soldhalf its stake ). And in 2007, thelargest software company inthe world, Microsoft ( MSFT ),paid $240 million for a 1.6percent stake . The global rich,eager to get in on the next bigthing, followed in the footstepsof the corporations. Li-Ka shing,one of the wealthiest men inHong Kong, invested in twodifferent transactions in 2007and 2008. Yuri Milner, Russia'sdominant entrepreneur, boughta stake in the company for$200 million in 2009. In 2011,Goldman Sachs ( GS ) came upwith a way to let its clients inon the Facebook action.Of course, as a cash-generatingmachine, Facebook didn't reallyneed any of this aristocraticcapital. It did, however, needgrown-up advice andsupervision on how totransition from a start-up to atitan. And, here, again, theprospectus shows Zuckerberg'sability to tap into theestablishment. Top executivesinclude COO Sheryl Sandberg, adouble Harvard graduate, aveteran of the Clinton WhiteHouse and Google ( GOOG ). Theboard of directors includesMarc Andreesen, who foundedNetscape, and Reed Hastings,the chief executive officer atNetflix ( NFLX ). Then there arethe requisite graybeards fromWashington, such as DonaldGraham, CEO of the WashingtonPost Company, and ErskineBowles, former White Housechief of staff in the Clintonyears and co-head of theBowles-Simpson Commission.There's a certain irony in this.IfThe Social Networkis tobelieved, Facebook started inpart as a reaction to anestablishment that was keepingMark Zuckerberg and his nerdybuddies out. It then morphedquickly from an elitist network-- remember, at first you had tobe a student at Harvard to getonto Facebook -- into aremarkably democratic andopen network. At the WorldEconomic Forum in Davos lastweek, I attended a session inwhich Sandberg spoke of howthe company and technologywere allowing those whosevoices had yet to be heard tobe broadcast loudly throughoutthe world.In other words, Zuckerberg andhis team have stormed theestablishment's barriers byempowering the non-establishment and allowing forthe creation of new socialnetworks. In doing so, they'vecreated untold wealth forthemselves. But because theestablishment is smart enoughto be open to new ideas, manyof the already-rich are going toget much richer as a result ofFacebook's IPO.

I found this snippit very interesting: "Joe Magyer, advisor and senior analyst with the Motley Fool, estimates that investors would be buying Facebook for 25 times sales when they could buy Google at five times sales, equivalent to setting money on fire without striking a match." But do read the whole thing... it's enlightening..Facebook IPO filing shines a light on company's finances

Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they’re more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: “Move fast and break things.” The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.

Be Bold

Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that’s changing so quickly, you’re guaranteed to fail if you don’t take any risks. We have another saying: “The riskiest thing is to take no risks.” We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.Mark Zuckerberg’s IPO Letter: Why Facebook Exists

Mark Zuckerberg will be the richest man in america in two years ,facebook ipo is coming to the market ,wao how can you be broke in 2004 and in 2012 be 1 of the 10 richest man in america waooo i love america ,,..only in america....i will buy some stock in facebook ticker FB ....i how he help does in need. life bless you with that used to make this world better...